Here’s the REAL reason the PCs won in Manitoba

As conservatives gaze into the abyss that is the NDP, they should remember that the abyss gazes back also.

What sunk Thomas Mulcair and Greg Selinger this month was an existential confusion over precisely what the heck their parties stood for.

And it isn't so much the not knowing what you stand for that appears to be the problem. If you can be OK with your left hand not knowing what your right hand is doing, you can still win big in Canadian politics.

But it's also why the similarly addled Manitoba Liberals did better than they have done in anyone's living memory, not letting a little thing like having their leader lose her seat get in the way of tripling their seat count.

By contrast the NDP took the news of their impending demise very, very seriously. Instead of joyfully proclaiming to the world that they had the courage to raise taxes (which I identified as a possible path back to power for them in the same column I referenced above) they shamefacedly accepted every charge laid by the Manitoba PCs.

Such is the fate of any political party that accepts their fate as dictated by polls and public opinion. That goes double for any conservative party thinking that a Liberal provincial or federal government will buckle as easily as the NDP is currently doing.

And it goes triple for the smug commentariat claiming that the Leap Manifesto is the NDP's death rattle. You would think, being conservatives, that they would recognize a Trump Moment when they see one.

Because -- as I also predicted -- that's exactly what the NDP is about to undergo. Reduced to an embattled single government in Alberta -- which I'm not counting out just yet either, by the way -- the beleaguered, visibly distraught NDP is ripe for a takeover by their most radical factions, just like the similarly bedraggled Republican Party down south.

The Leap Manifesto, for all its toxic crazy, is an authentic "Leap" of faith for the New Democrats. As others have noted, it will force the party to make a choice between blue-collar populist union rank and file and the intellectual social justice warrior elite.

Once that question is settled, there will be no more crisis of conscience plaguing the NDP.

So, enjoy the NDP's reckoning while you can, and then hope that Canada's right wing sorts itself out before the socialist tide rises again.

Joshua makes the mistake of dwelling almost entirely on the political party and its thinking and proclaimed aims and hardly any time on what The People really want. I’m waiting for the political journalist who will point out the fact that it does not matter what party strategies are or what this one or that one could or could not have done. The only thing that matters is what the people know and how they prove they know it, and hence, who they ask to represent them. That means we need very thorough and serious referendums on the issues. We need a way for the voters to show that they are informed of the issues. We cannot afford to allow stupid voters to vote in stupid people. But I never get any input on this important idea of intelligent engagement in politics. All I ever get is the false idea that everyone has the right to vote (universal franchise, which stinks) whatever way they want to. They (voters) do not have that right, because no one has the ‘right’ to be stupid and uninformed.

Joshua makes the mistake of dwelling almost entirely on the political party and its thinking and proclaimed aims and hardly any time on what The People really want. I’m waiting for the political journalist who will point out the fact that it does not matter what party strategies are or what this one or that one could or could not have done. The only thing that matters is what the people know and how they prove they know it, and hence, who they ask to represent them. That means we need very thorough and serious referendums on the issues. We need a way for the voters to show that they are informed of the issues. We cannot afford to allow stupid voters to vote in stupid people. But I never get any input on this important idea of intelligent engagement in politics. All I ever get is the false idea that everyone has the right to vote (universal franchise, which stinks) whatever way they want to. They (voters) do not have that right, because no one has the ‘right’ to be stupid and uninformed.

The Leap agenda will move the followers of the Green Party to the federal NDP. But the Leap agenda will probably loose the NDP at least half their voters. Unfortunately, the ones the NDP loose will probably end up with the Liberals.

Manitoba is a province that basically has a two party system. The Sellinger government pissed people off, so over half of Manitoba voted for the conservatives. It has nothing to do with the leap manifesto, or the NDP becoming the party of the social justice warriors. If you screw the province up, you will get punted out. That’s all there is to it.

It is so good to see the Conservatives in office again in Manitoba. Hopefully they can stay in office for at least 3 or 4 terms because it will take that much time to turn Manitoba around and send them back onto a positive track … sadly just in time for the NDP to get back into power and destroy the economy again. Politics always follow that cycle in Canada.

I note with interest that Lieblein, while quick to point out the alleged take over of the Republican party by so called right wing radicals, fails to mention that the democrat party has been taken over by left wing radicals too. That omission says more about his personal agenda than it does about any real conditions in Canada.

Joshua Lieblein – I think you are over analyzing the election result in Manitoba. Manitobans just got fed up with lies, arrogance, being in the tank by every social/economic measurement and the NDP blaming their 17 years of dismal management on their predecessors. Not once in 17 years have they accepted any responsibility for their own mistakes or bad policies. The conservatives are bound to make mistakes as well, but you can count on grassroots PC’s to hold them accountable.

It only took my home province 17-years to figure out what why they were no longer prosperous. Better late than never I guess. I’m so glad that they finally saw the light, and voted in the conservatives. Please don’t send all the unemployed dippers to AB to continue their work of destruction here, we have our hands full with the last standing communist regime, and we can’t wait to ditch these commies. The NDP are corrupt to their core, which is what happens when you hang out with union criminals. The stench of corruption sticks to you too. The NDP are useful tools to the corrupt unions, who seem to think they own the show! The bullies have the stage for now, but I can’t wait to see how it all ends!